MrFish

Yeah, it would have been a more interesting release in 1982 or so.

Somewhat of a joke (or complaint) back in the day; but pretty amazing and interesting in retrospect.

It was independently published by the author. The author himself made an appearance here on the forums some year back, with some discussions on the game. I never played it much myself, but a lot of folks were somewhat fascinated by its physics and AI. It's fairly highly rated on Atarimania. [Edit] Here's the thread about it: Gauntlet by Donald R. Lebeau 1984

I had this game as a kid, in the late 70's. I don't remember much about it now, except that it was based around a neat Rube Goldberg device.

Unfortunately, the game you speak of was released before the arcade game Gauntlet. The name was later changed to Gauntletak when it was finally released commercially. So, not much can be done there; and the 8-bit release of Gauntlet by Mindscape is no consolation for anyone...

It becomes necessary to take unambiguous and determinate actions towards those who violate the sanctity of revered arcade-game names, in order to thwart efforts of any duplicitous developers who might have the audacity to go about entertaining notions that such treacherous acts against the sacred, golden halls of classic arcade glory can be carried out with impunity... or something like that.

Well, letdown was a household word back then when it came to home-computer games.

Yeah, I don't think there was any deliberate intent to deceive. Astro Blaster is actually just a PCS machine made by some user; so it isn't even a commercial title. The creator was just using some "theme" for his pinball machine. With Mouse Trap, they may have been trying to capitalize on the name of a known arcade game, but in 1987 it'd hardly have been during the original game's prime time (released 1981); and it's so different -- being a platformer -- that there isn't much chance of it being mistaken for the original.

...or optionally pieces of cardboard with melted plastic on top.

Thanks for the information. As a result, both publishing parties have been contacted by AtariAge's lawyers. The goal is to have the Mouse's cheese taken away, and for Astro Blaster (a pinball game) to have its balls taken away. They'll then combine the two resources and produce and sell a game in the AtariAge store called "Cheese Balls", which will financially compensate all those who've suffered any mental anxiety as a result of the deception. All funds will afterwards be distributed over a 50 year period in increments of 25 cents per year, to be paid via Chuck E. Cheese arcade tokens; or those affected will optionally be able to receive one bag of cheese ball snacks per year for the remainder of their existence.

My main machine atm. 7YJ HA 67895 84

Yeah, I didn't mean there isn't anything on SourceForge, but not version 1.11 (it only goes up to 1.09); and it's not on his website either (same thing, just 1.09).

Thanks... I guess he switched from SourceForge to Github (as a lot of people have done), and didn't update the change on his website.

Where is version 1.11? I only see 1.09 available.

Here's Sobola's schematics: 130xesr.zip 800xlsr.zip